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No. 96. 

LIBRARY of 

Cape Cod 

HISTORY & GENEALOGY 



ANCIENT HOUSES 

By Capt. Inomas Prince Howies 




C. W. SWIFT, Publisher and Printer, 

Yarmouthport, Mass.: 

1911. 



ANCIENT HOUSES. Col John Thacher, prominent in the 

second generation of Cape men, ac- 

A paper read before the Cape Cod tive in the field, and wise in coun- 

Historical Society, February 22, sel; Judge Peter Thacher and his 

' 1888, by Capt. Thomas Prince grandson. Judge George Thacher, 

Howes. who is still remembered by persons 

living, and his brother. Col Thomas, 

I propose in my remarks, on this a worthy and trusted citizen of Yar- 

occasion, to indulge in some rambling mouth — all honored and honorable 

talks about the homes of a few of men. 

our people, with whose lives I am One can imagine what matters of 
somewhat acquainted, by tradition public concern in the history of the 
and family papers. infant colonies, have been discussed 
We still have left standing in our within the walls of that house. Eng- 
midst, here and there, a venerable land and France were seldom at 
house, — time-worn and decayed — peace, and the men of Thacher 
which has sheltered six or seven blood were ready to take a hand, 
generations, and remains as an ob- when men had to go to the front; 
ject lesson in our domestic history, and in church and town affairs 
We need go but a few rods from this their services were in request. The 
hall to find an illustration of the men of early times, when that and 
truth of this. The house built by other old houses were builded, were 
Col John Thacher, son of the grantor without the assistance of newspapers 
Anthony, and handed down from sire to tell what they ought to do. Not 
to son for six generations, yet a solitary newspaper in British 
stands. When that house was erect- America, and hardly a book except 
ed, in 1680, Plymouth was not unit- the Bible; certainly no novels, un- 
ed to Massachusetts; Charles II was less The Pilgrim's Progress, if any 
king of England; William Penn had had that, which is very doubtful, 
not crossed the Atlantic; the Missi- but they appear to have got on with- 
ssippi river was unexplored, and the out the aid of the daily paper or the 
English language unspoken west of public library, for two or three gen- 
Lake Ontario. It was twenty years erations at least; and it is doubtful 
before any post route was establish- if our fathers would have been much 
ed in Massachusetts. There is no interested in reading books if they 
building on the peninsula of Boston had been obtainable. The minister 
of equal antiquity; it antedates must have been about the only man 
Christ church by forty-three years; of any pretensions to literary cul- 
and the oldest brick building, which ture, and his reading must have 
is the corner book store, by thirty- been limited to few books. No 
two years. The distinguished man doubt he was a frequent visitor at 
who built that house and those who any home of the Thachers. Col 
succeeded him in its occupancy have John Thacher was the son, it is 
deserved well of their countrymen, said, of one who had officiated as a 



f^o^^ 



curate in England, and grandson of 
Peter, a rector of the church. Among 
other matters which had to be set- 
tled in those days, was the delicate 
one of seating the congregation in 
the meeting house, and as time went 
on, the enlarging the house of wor- 
ship, and, at last, the building of 
a new one at old Yarmouth, and the 
division of the parish. 

I confess to an affectionate inter- 
est in that old Thacher dwelling, for 
various reasons, and one is, perhaps, 
that Mr Anthony Thacher and my 
ancestor were warm personal friends, 
coming on to the Cape together, as 
grantors of the settlement. They 
lived in loving harmony for twenty- 
seven years after founding the town. 
The will of Thomas Howes, which is 
witnessed by the Rev Thomas Thorn- 
ton, mentions Mr Anthony Thacher, 
and calls him "my beloved friend," 
and Mr Thacher and his wife. Mis- 
tress Elizabeth Thacher, are witnes- 
ses to a codicil of the will. Another 
reason for my interest is that it was 
the first house I had the privilege 
of entering in Yarmouth. It seems 
a long time ago, when riding over 
from Dennis, on horseback behind 
my father, we dismounted and enter- 
ed one of the two front doors, with 
which the house was then furnished. 
That was more than sixty years 
since. The occasion must have been 
the keeping of a family relationship, 
growing out of a marriage of one of 
the daughters of Peter Thacher, Jr., 
to my grandfather, Jeremiah Howes. 
Terape Thacher married Capt John 
Hedge of Yarmouth, who was one of 
the victims of the prison ship in 
New York harbor. She was a sis- 
ter of Judge George Thacher and 
Col Thomas Thacher, whose daugh- 
ter occupied th'^^ house at the time I 



have mentioned. For her second 
husband she accepted Lieut Jeremiah 
Howes, and went to Dennis to live, 
where she died in 1808. A marble 
slab in the burial ground commemor- 
ates her memory, and also that of her 
first husband, Capt John Hedge, 
and her only son, Capt Daniel Hedge, 
who was lost at sea with all his 
crew, in the winter of 1804. The 
oldest daughter, Mary, upon her 
father's death, went to live with her 
uncle. Judge Thacher, at Biddeford, 
Maine, where she married a young 
lawyer, who had been a student in 
the office of the Judge, and after- 
wards settled in Wiscasset and be- 
came a member of congress; his 
name was Silas Lee; he was a prom- 
inent political and business man in 
Maine, in the early part of the cen- 
tury. Mr and Mrs Lee used to make 
occasional visits to Yarmouth and 
Dennis, driving down in a carriage 
and pair, with a colored driver on 
the box. The advent of lawyer ' 
Lee and his wife, in their coach, in- 
to the quiet and primitive village of 
Nobscussett, eighty years ago, creat- 
ed quite a stir, and no little gossip. 
And then grandmother Howes, as I 
used to hear her called, must take a 
trip to Wiscasset to see her daugh- 
ter. A letter I have in my posses- 
sion, from Mrs Lee to my grand- 
father, details her journey home and 
the places she was to stop at. It 
was no trifling affair to journey by 
land from Wiscasset to Dennis in the 
year 1800. 

Leaving, as we must, the Thacher 
house with all its associations, my 
memory recalls many old homes on 
the road as we journey eastward to- 
wards Dennis. The old one which 
contains a portion of the old meeting 
house built in Y armouth. Another, 



occupied in my boyhood by Mr Ben- 
jamin Howes, its site now covered 
with pine trees. On the spot where 
Mr Lincoln Robbins lived formerly 
stood a large two-story house, the 
abode of Squire Atherton Hall, who 
kept a tavern. The road from 
South Dennis intersected the Dennis 
road at this point, and men journey- 
ing from different parts of the town 
to Boston on horseback, as they 
wholly did in the winter, would make 
engagements to meet at this house, 
to commence their journey together. 

Another old house I remember, be- 
yond the one last mentioned, an old 
Taylor house. The Taylor property 
lay mostly, I fancy, around in the re- 
gion of Hockonom. Mr Lothrop 
Taylor lived in this house, and the 
high hill in Honkonom was called 
"Lothrop's Hill." The Taylor fields 
are now covered with pine woods 
and the remembrance of the lives 
and names of the early Taylors, like 
many others, is likely to be lost un- 
der the mold of years. 

Coming into Dennis, I can remem- 
ber some twenty old-fashioned two- 
story houses. They were built from 
the timber grown in our own woods, 
oak and pine. The boards and shin- 
gles were imported; bricks were 
made at our own kilns. The fram- 
ing differed somewhat from that in 
vogue in these days. In the con- 
struction of the two-story houses, the 
timbers that supported the garret 
floors projected beyond the front of 
the building, and the rafters were 
tenanted into them, so as to form the 
heavy jet, and also binding the 
frame firmly together. A huge 

piece of timber, called the "summer 
tree," formed the support for the 
the sleepers of the chamber floor. 
As most of the old houses were upon 



somewhat low ground, it was not safe 
to dig a deep cellar, and so to give 
convenient height to the walls, the 
floor was raised some few feet, and 
a bedroom built over the cellar. This 
was called the "stair bedroom," and 
was common to most of the houses 
built in the last century. If there 
was a maiden lady in the family it 
was usually her private apartment, 
and here were stored the heirlooms 
of the family — the ancient chest of 
drawers and the old looking glass of 
some grandmother and other precious 
articles of inherited household goods. 

The Cape is a land abounding in 
fresh water ponds and running 
brooks, an attractive feature in the 
landscape to an emigrant seeking a 
permanent home and looking forward 
to the rearing of flocks and herds. 
Accordingly we find most of the fam- 
ily mansions, the large two-storj' 
structures, near some stream. Along 
on both sides of the brook which 
runs through the ancient village of 
the Nobscussetts, stood within my 
recollection, eleven of these old 
homes of the fathers, — Halls, Crow- 
ells, Vincents, Eldrdiges, and Howes- 
es, had erected dwellings on the low 
ground, where water was plenty and 
the soil good. In one the minister 
resided, the Rev Josiah Dennis, a 
name still fragrant with pleasant 
memories. The house is standing 
and can boast of a "stair bedroom." 

Another venerable house, long the 
family homestead of one branch of 
the Halls, is to be noticed as the 
birthplace of Nathaniel Freeman, the 
revolutionary patriot, know as Briga- 
dier Freeman. He was born in Den- 
nis, then Yarmouth, in 1741. His 
father was at that time teacher of 
the school in the town. This house 
is yet remaining. 



In one of these ancient homes of Belle Isle and the St Lawrence- 
my race which is still left, many of "Canada River," he called it— and 
the hours of my childhood and youth some dim sort of a remmiscence of 
were passed in listening to tales of witnessing tea thrown overboard 
old men and old times from the lips and of his rowing through it, but 
of an uncle of my father's, who had not daring to appropriate any for his 
inherited the house and family tradi- own use. 

tions from his father and grandfath- He did not himself go to war m the 
er This house was built about 1700 Revolution, but was enrolled as home 
by Prince Howes. grandson of guard, and went to meeting with gun 
Thomas, the first of the name. The and military equipments. His mena- 
mother of Prince was the youngest ory went back to the old French 
daughter of Gov Thomas Prince, war, and he remembered the comet 
The restless spirit of emigration of 1759— "blazing star"— he spoke of 
seized one of Prince's brothers, and it as something potentious, and so it 
he pushed off and settled in Pemo- was in the minds of the men of that 
quid, Maine. Of the four sons of generation, for it might in their ina- 
Prin'ce, two left home to improve agination from "his horrid hair 
their fortunes abroad. One, Jere- shake pestilence and war." ^ This 
miah, going to Plymouth, and anoth- old gentleman had great faith in the 
er whose name was also Prince, existence of witches, and in other 
went to Oblong, where were soon preternatural appearances, such as 
gathered a large colony of Cape apparitions and warnings from the 
names, and where he found money unseen world. These views were 
was very scarce and hard to get — commonly held by the generation to 
an experience very common with which he belonged, the great John 
people who go seeking their fortune. Wesley himself being an example. 
Prince Howes, the elder, went to In the large front chamber of his 
Hockonom for his wife, marrying in house hung an oil painting of Queen 
1695 Dorcas Joyce, daughter of Ho- Anne. Of the history of this pic- 
sea Joyce. Two of his daughters ture I have no knowledge, and no 
in turn married men from old Yar- one living can tell where it came 
mouth, viz.: Jonathan Hallet to De- from. The queen is painted with a 
sire, 1719, and Dorcas to James Mat- crown and sceptre, and a falcon up- 
thews, in 1723. In fact, my old un- on one arm. There were several 
cle, whom I have introduced, himself holes through the canvas, said to 
In 1774, took a wife from the daugh- have been the work of rude and ir- 
ters of Yarmouth, Susannah Mat- reverent boys, who took pleasure in 
thews, daughter of Dea Isaac Mat- thus insulting the royal majesty of 
thews. And so it can be seen that England, by discharging their pop- 
about every person in Yarmouth and guns at this effigy of a queen. This 
Dennis is genetically related, for mutilation was, of course, done after 
what is true of this family is also the colonies had revolted from the 
true of nearly every other. Here mother country. 

in this home by the evening fire, un- Our first minister in the East pre- 
cle Jonathan would relate stories of cinct, as every one knows, was Rev 
whaling voyages to the straights of Josiah Dennis. He endeared him- 



self to the people of his charge by 
his upright character, uniform kind- 
ness and mirthfulness of disposition. 
Many anecdotes have been preserv- 
ed of his quiet humor. He once 
gave one of his neighbors who was 
going to Boston in a vessel a memo- 
randum of some articles to be pro- 
cured. When this person came to 
consult his list he could make noth- 
ing of it. He brought it back to 
Mr Dennis, who himself could not 
read it. "Well," he said, "I did 
not write it to read myself, I wrote 
it for you to read." Another time, 
returning from a marriage, where 
the contracting parties were a Mr 
Robbins and a Miss Crowell, 
he met a friend, who asked 
where he had been. " Oh," 

he said, "to marry a Robin to a 
Crow." It seems he kept a small 
store in a part of his house, where 
the rats had gnawed a hole through 
the floor. The simple-hearted old 
divine had placed a bag of shot over 
the hole to keep the rats out. The 
result was the loss of his shot down 
the hole. When Mr Dennis saw 
how the expermient had worked, he 
good naturedly exclaimed, "I have 
shot a rat!" Going to Eastham to 
exchange, he found upon his desk, 
or in the pulpit, a large number of 
notes — as they were called — of per- 
sons about to leave home for a voy- 
age to sea. Looking over them he 
noticed there were only two names 
among them. So holding them in 
his hand, as he rose to pray, he said: 
"Here are a parcel of Cooks and 
Cobbs desiring the prayers of this 
church and congregation, being 
bound to sea." Mr Dennis and his 
successor, the Rev Nathan Stone, 
were men of the highest character, 
and their united labors covered three- 



fourths of a century. The a;shes of 
both, as well as the Rev Caleb 
Holmes, who had a comparatively 
short ministry, rest in the cemetery 
at Dennis. There does not seem to 
have been any great disturbing ques- 
tions in theology to trouble the 
peace of the church during the minsi- 
try of these devout and blameless 
men. Whatever we may now think 
of the dogmas held by the churches 
of their day, there can be no doubt- 
ing the value of the practical teaching 
of the pulpit in forming the charac- 
ter of the people. 

But to return to old houses. In 
that part of Nobscussett where Mr 
John Hall chose his estate, at the 
brook already noticed, there stands 
an old two-story, double house 
built by Mr Joseph Hall, grandson 
of Mr John Hall. He kept a store 
and was known as "Merchant Hall." 
In close proximity to the house, 
within twenty-five years, stood two 
other large two-story dwellings, be- 
longing to the Hall family. Just 
beyond the limits of Nobscussett, un- 
der the shadow of Scargo hill, the 
loftiest elevation on the Cape, may 
yet be seen a venerable mansion, 
the home of several generations of 
the Paddock family. Nearby is the 
family burying ground. Representa- 
tives of this name are to be found 
widely scattered through the country.* 
Mr Amos Otis used to say the old 
Paddock house was the oldest in 
Dennis. It is possible that Ichabod 
Paddock, to whom belongs the hon- 
or of instructing the men of Nan- 
tucket in the art of capturing whales, 
may have been born in this house. 
Adino Paddock, the first person in 
Boston to set up a coach, and for 
whom were named the famous Pad- 
dock elms, might have gone out 



from that venerable old mansion. 

That the men of the second and 
third generations from the first 
comers to the Cape, could have ob- 
tained the means to erect such sub- 
stantial buildings as we still see 
standing here and there, is striking 
evidence that they labored industri- 
ously, lived frugally, and planned 



wisely, proving themselves worthy 

descendants of those 

"Who boundless seas passed o'er and 

boldly met in every path. 
Famine and pest and savage wrath; 
To dedicate a shore, where liberty's 

glad race might proudly come 
And set up there an everlasting 

home." 



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